Photographic-printing apparatus.



No. 780,844. PATENTED JAN. 24, 1905. H, R. WATTS.

PHOTOGRAPHIG PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 18. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

7 PATENTED JAN. 24, 1905. H. R. WATTS.

PHOTOGRAPHIG PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 18. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2v PATENTED JAN. 24, 1905.

H. R! WATTS.

PHOTOGRAPHIU PRINTING- APPARATUS.

APPLIGATION FILED NOV-.18. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 UNITED STATES Patented January 24, 1905.

HERBERT RICHARD \VATTS, OF BROOKLANDS, ENGLAND.

PHOTOGRAPHIC-PRINTING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 780,844, dated January24, 1905.

Application filed November 18, 1904. Serial No. 233,338.

1'0 61/ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT RICHARD WVA'r'rs, Optician, a subject of theKing of Great Britain, residing at Arrandale, Arran avenue, Brooklands,in the county of Chester, England, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Photographic-Printing Apparatus, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for photographicprinting for the reproduction of tracings or semitransparent drawings onsensitized material by either sunlight, electric-arc lamp, or othersuitable artificial light.

The principal objects of my improvements are to provide an apparatusthat will reproduce tracings of any length and to simplify and expeditethe production of photo copies of smaller tracings.

A suitable apparatus constructed and adapted to accomplish the aboveobjects consists of a plate, preferably fiat and made of glass or othersuitable transparent material, fixed in a framework of any convenientcharacter. (The plate may be fixed horizontally, vertically, or at anysuitable angle.) In conjunction with this plate I employ a series ofrollers, preferably rubber-covered, between which the tracing orsemitransparent drawing and the sensitized material are together fed.The rollers are so constructed that they can be rotated in unison atvarying speeds either by hand or power and are so arranged that whenrotating they press, with a pressure which can be adjusted, thesensitized material and tracing against the transparent plate and at thesame time feed the plan and the material across the plate. Guide rollersor plates are arranged at the edge of the transparent plate to feed thesensitized material between the aforesaid series of rollers andtransparent plate.

In the accompanying three sheets of drawings, Figure l is a frontelevation, and Fig. 2 an end sectional elevation, of my improvedphotographic-printing apparatus. Fig. 3 is a detail view, on a largerscale, of part of Fig. 2.

In the views, a designates the frame of the apparatus, 6 the flat plateof glass fixed diagonall y therein, and c the series of rubber-coveredrollers. Each alternate roller 0 has a sprocket-wheel (Z fixed on oneend, and the remaining rollers 0 have similar sprocket-wheels fixed ontheir other ends, and the two series of sprocket-wheels c? are driven bya pair of chains 0 from sprocket wheels f, fixed one near each end of across-shaft g, which is driven by gears h i from a worm 7', fixed on ashaft k. lhe shaft 70 may be turned by hand or may be driven by means ofa band or belt Z and a stepped pulley w from any convenient motor. Thetracing m to be reproduced is batched on a roller n and is led between aglass or other guide-plate y and the first of the rubber-covered rollersc and then between the rubber-covered rollers c and the glass plateb toa driven batching-rollerc. In

like manner the sensitized material is led from the batching-roller g tothe driven batching-roller 0', which, with the other batchingroller 0,is driven at the same surface speed as the rubber-covered rollers 0 bymeans of a chain s and sprocket-wheels from the crossshaft g. Eachrubber-covered roller 0 has its bearings in slide-blocks t, and theseblocks 25 are adjusted, by means of screws u, to regulate the pressureof the rollers 0 against the plate 6. In place of the gearing describedany other suitable arrangement of gearing may be adopted for driving therubber-covered rollers c.

In using the apparatus the tracing or semitransparent plan an to bereproduced from the roller 11., together with the sensitized material pfrom the roller w, is fed between the series of rubber-covered rollers 0and the transparent plate 71, and so traveled across the plate I).

By regulating the speed at which the rollers rotate sufiicient time isobtained for the exposure of the sensitized material to the rays oflight passing through the transparent plate 6. The light may be sunlightwhen obtainable or any suitable artificial light, such as that ofelectric-arc lamps, mercuryvapor tubes, or the like. The operation isthus continuous, and the length of the reproduction is unrestricted.

Small tracings or the like may be fed 2 '780,84&

through in the same manner one after the other without altering theapparatus.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, is

In photographic printing apparatus the combination with a transparentplate fixed in a suitable framework, of a series of rubbercovered orequivalent rollers placed in proximity to each other and to said plate,and means for driving and adjusting the same, substan- IO tially asherein set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

HERBERT RICHARD VVAT'IS. Witnesses:

HENRY BEINOULLI BARLow, HERBERT ROWLAND ABBEY.

